Arrivabene: Ferrari tyre failure blame 'obvious'
Jul.17 - Pirelli is looking into the tyre failures that cost Sebastian Vettel almost his entire championship lead at Silverstone.
Vettel's Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen also suffered a tyre delamination late in the British grand prix,.
"We are investigating," Pirelli chief Mario Isola said.
"The tyres will be sent to Milan and studied," he revealed, "and we also need to see more setup data by the teams."
One suggestion was that Ferrari's particular setup, combined with the high downforce produced by the 2017 car, at least contributed to the problems.
Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene, however, made clear his feelings about the blame.
"Although the reasons to us are obvious, it is not Ferrari's style to complain about losing a second and fourth place," he is quoted by Bild newspaper.
But Vettel commented: "I don't think anyone is particularly to blame. With hindsight everything is easy."
As for his decimated championship lead, which now stands at just a single point over Lewis Hamilton, the German added: "There is no reason for panic or concern.
"The last races were not quite as good, but I think we cannot forget how far away we were last year.
"It is true that Mercedes was stronger in the last races, but I think the biggest problem for us is qualifying. At the same time we have a fast car and once we work on a few things, it could be a different picture again," said Vettel.
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Its fine for Vettel to say that they only need to "work on a few things" but, he overlooks the fact that Mercedes has committed the 1,500 person Brackey facility to just 2 cars and they are willing to operate in the Red,something no other constructor will do so..having a" fast car" is not enough to win.
Add to competing with the other constructors the battles with the F1 Stewards,who have a history of ruling against German drivers and the F1 organization itself, with a history of "helping "teams centered in England ( note Ferrari is in Maranello ,Italy and Mercedes is in Brackley , England )and Mr. Vettel et.al.should anticipate a series of battles .
As to qualifying ,which we all know is SO important in F1 ,Ferrari and especially Vettel MUST improve as they are not having the success they had in the past and Mercedes is doing much better than in past years in particular with the ruling that its now OK to move early so long as you do so in a silver car.
Vettel and Raikonnen will need lots of help-translation : Ferrari will need to spend the kind of money that Mercedes is spending or else their season is already over and Mercedes gets another 1-2 and the boredom which is called F1 will continue.
Sad on many levels.
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